Tantric Implications of Abhinavagupta’s Rasa Theory

 

 

Speaker: Dr. Mrinal Kaul, Assistant Professor at the Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities, Manipal University and is also coordinating its Centre for Religious Studies

 

Abhinavagupta (fl.c. 975-1025 CE), the non-dualist Trika ?aiva thinker of Kashmir and an unusual literary figure belonging to pre-modern South Asia, is recognized for his major contributions to diverse domains of knowledge, primarily philosophy, theology, and aesthetics. He is usually associated either with what is popularly known as ‘Kashmir ?aivism’ or with the Sanskrit aesthetic theory of rasa (“relish”). The former is an historically problematic designation for non-dualist ?aivism, of which Abhinavagupta is one of the main representatives

 

(Collaboration: Studio Abhyas)